Will lead international forces in southwest

The Camp Pendleton force preparing to lead the fight in southwestern Afghanistan will have to find its footing on shifting sands of change in the deserts flanking the Helmand River Valley, as the U.S. slowly winds down its war campaign.

When Maj. Gen. Charles “Mark” Gurganus takes command next month of the military coalition in Helmand and Nimruz provinces he will preside over a particularly dynamic battlespace marked by a steadily dwindling number of U.S. combat forces. During his year at the helm, much of the military infrastructure built with a surge of additional troops will be dismantled or transferred to Afghan control, and indigenous security forces will assume increasing responsibility, Gurganus told U-T San Diego.

His command staff, originally planned to include about 600 service members from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquartered at Camp Pendleton, is being trimmed to a size still to be determined. The main advance party left for Afghanistan earlier this month, joining a handful who deployed in January.

Gurganus will begin his tour in charge of roughly 17,000 to 18,000 Marines and about half that number of international troops, mostly British. As the number of U.S. troops throughout Afghanistan falls according to the current plan — to 68,000 by September — the Marine force will likewise contract and move into the background as Afghan forces take over more areas.

That process began in earnest last year when the Helmand provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, as well as some smaller areas were ceded to Afghan security control.

“That is how you hope to write the end of this story — us doing less up front, providing those critical capabilities that they’ve not fully developed yet,” such as medical evacuation and close air support for ground forces under attack, Gurganus said.

The Camp Pendleton command is taking the baton from East Coast Marines who have been in charge of the region for the last year. In the interim, Marines from San Diego County continued to cycle into the larger supporting force of as many as 20,000 drawn from throughout the Corps.

As the handoff to Afghan troops accelerates, the Marines and their international allies will have “less of a role but still provide overwatch for them,” Gurganus said.

The shift toward a training and support mission for Afghan forces was precipitated by President Barack Obama’s order to begin withdrawing U.S. forces, a process not expected to be complete until late 2014 at the earliest. The pullout now underway comes as economic troubles pinch many allies in NATO’s Afghanistan coalition and war weariness mounts at home after a decade of combat, increasing the pressure on battlefield commanders like Gurganus to quickly reach a “good enough” end to the war.

On Friday as more than 100 Marines and sailors bound for Afghanistan prepared to fly out of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, the incoming air wing commander for war zone operations said they must become more efficient to provide the same level of combat and logistics air support with fewer Marines and aircraft.